(A few of the details of this story have been changed to protect the identity of the innocent,)
I had a wonderful hard-working, intelligent, student (let’s call Dream Student) who comes prepared to every lesson and is so excited to learn. Dream Student has had only a few months of lessons with me and a few months of lessons with another teacher but is right on track and improving in leaps and bounds. What’s the problem? None with the student. Lots with the parent. Dream Student recently entered a “competition” and didn’t place in the top half of the winners. Part of the problem is Dream’s flute. When Dream played my flute the difference was miraculous-but I guess not to his parents. One of Dream’s parents said, “This flute should be good enough-he didn’t place in the top half at the competition and frankly, that was well below my expectations.” Argh! Do you have to be 1st to be valued? Do you have to place at all?? Dream’s parents don’t know what a Dream Student he is!
I don’t know that we’ll ever be able to “reach” every parent….from the competition results types like this, to the one I had recently: “well, she’s learned enough notes for school band so we’ll be stopping lessons now”
To the parents out there who value the process of learning music, what advice would you give to help other parents understand?
I know. I had one who didn’t want me to teach B natural.. only the band notes please. It’s our job to get the kids so excited the parents wouldn’t dare make them quit but of course that doesn’t always work! Thanks for your reply.